A temporary home and repository for television and film critic Daniel Fienberg, formerly of HitFix.com and Zap2it.com and one half of The Firewall & Iceberg Podcast.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Kevin Smith "Uncovers" Gay X-Men Subtext

It appears to be nearly the one-year anniversary of my last blog post. Perhaps it's time to try again?

Anyway, I was in San Francisco this past weekend for WonderCon, an event that managed to amuse me and bemuse me at the same time. I like things that do that.

Without a question, the weekend's highlight was the 90-minute Q&A from Kevin Smith, a man who does this sort of hilariously semi-off-the-cuff stuff for a living. Anyway, the talk kicked into gear almost immediately with Smith's riff on Bryan Singer's "X-Men" movies and their gay subtext. The quotes are a bit too blue for my employer, but what better use of a blog? Exactly.

Just keep in mind that Smith's comments are here because they amuse me and not because I agree with them or his choice of language.*******Kevin Smith on Singer and His Films:"I was f***ing ecstatic to see his third entry in that franchise. I love those 'X-Men' movies. I was so pissed. I thought they were some of the best comic book movies ever made. 'X-Men 2' I thought was genius. Maybe it's the best comic book movie every made, juggle all those f***ing character at once and s*** like that. It was really well done.

But what I really dug about those movies? Gayer than hell.

I'm sure I'm not outing the brother, I'm sure most people know that Bryan's gay and whatnot and those movies are just complete allegories for being gay, which I appreciate. I have a gay brother. He's married to a dude and that's as gay as it possibly gets. I'm in the gay family. I'm one cock and a mouth shy of being gay myself.

If you can do that while making a mainstream popcorn entertainment I think that's incredible. I'd never be able to do it. My gay jokes are very unsubtle and they are about acceptance, but at the same time.

Bryan's able to whip out a little 'Hey, hug a gay man' kind of message without making it upfront. It's underneath. You walk out of the movie, you're walking home going 'That was pretty pimp. Wait a second. I think I like gay people.'

For the third one, I'd imagine that Bryan would just rip away the f***ing top layer of story and just make it all f***ing dick. Like 'Brokeback Mutant.'

This is the town to whip out the gay comic book material."

Kevin Smith on Singer's Upcoming "Superman Returns" (a film he wrote a draft for way back in the day):"It's like 10 years ago at this point and I'm just happy to see any 'Superman' movie. I don't give a f*** who makes it. Now that Bryan's making it, though, I'm f***ing even more eager, because you know it's gonna have gay content.

My 'Superman'... I wouldn't have done any gay content. Bryan's 'Superman' is gonna be just cockalicious.

I'm just gonna go into that movie looking for gay content. I won't be paying attention to plot. I'm just looking for long furtive glances between men. F*** Lois and Clark. I'm looking at Clark and Jimmy."